By: Elliott Garske
Call of Duty Vanguard, while better than some of it’s recent counterparts, still suffers from the same issues Call of Duty has faced for years.
Content wise, the game is probably the best the franchise has had in years, with over 20 maps for multiplayer, a pretty good albeit short campaign and a zombies mode on launch. But when you actually look into each mode there are visible flaws in the system that bring the game down.
As mentioned above, the campaign is extremely short. While it was fun and looked amazing, the story it tells fails to show any significance as to why it needed to be told. Over half of the campaign’s missions are flashbacks used to introduce or build upon the characters of the campaign while a startlingly small amount of time is spent on the actual story of the campaign.
As for multiplayer, while having 20 maps on launch is amazing, the weapon balance and gunsmith system are just the top of a long list of bugs and issues that multiplayer has. Weapon balance is on par with Modern Warfare 2, with most weapons being completely overpowered and “meta-loadouts” dominating every match to where if you aren’t using certain weapons you basically don’t get to play the game. The gunsmith system is very much to blame for this too, as you are now able to put a whopping 10 attachments on any gun, which is two times the amount of attachments as in the last 2 games that had the system. While the amount of possibilities to gun customization is a huge plus, it has the side effect of creating a meta where guns can kill you in 2 shots to the foot.
Zombies though is very evident that it was made in an extremely short amount of time in order to quickly get out a third mode, as while the concepts it has are pretty fun, it has virtually zero content. The idea of taking the Outbreak gamemode from last year’s Black Ops: Cold War and adding more objectives in smaller areas is a super fun idea, but the mode has an extremely small amount of content, just one run is enough to basically experience everything the mode has to offer.
Vanguard has the foundation to be a truly great Call of Duty, but it’s issues vastly outweigh what it actually manages to do right, and honestly just feels like the standard Call of Duty experience at this point.
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